The Pentagon has hired a PR company to help it win the propaganda war involving its military action in Afghanistan.

The Rendon Group, the firm the US government has hired, is the same agency that advised the CIA-backed opponents of Saddam Hussain during the mid-90s.

The Pentagon is paying the company £2,300 a day for the advice. The initial £276,000, 120-day contract was awarded without a pitch with the option to extend it by up to a year.

The Pentagon wants TRG to help it allay fears that its actions amount to a war against Islam rather than terrorism. It also wants to counter messages it considers to be "disinformation".

The agency will monitor the news media in 79 countries, recommend ways the US military can counter opposition messages and improve public communications.

TRG will also create a counter-terrorism website to provide information on terrorist groups and the US campaign against terrorism.

"We needed a firm that could provide strategic counsel immediately. We were interested in someone we knew could come in quickly and help us communicate to a range of groups around the world, " said Lt Col Kenneth McClellan, a Pentagon press officer.

Staff at Washington-based TRG include former members of the White House staff, Congress and Bill Clinton's government.

John Rendon, the president of the company, has advised the governments of Kuwait, Haiti and Panama and the company has worked for the US department of defence and the US information agency.

Just days after the September 11 attacks on the US, the Saudi government hired one of the world's biggest PR agencies, Burson Marsteller, to provide "issues counselling and crisis management".